I am now officially the wife of a constable...

I attended my husband's graduation from RCMP depo in Regina,Sask this weekend. It was a whirlwind event of parades, marches, ceremony, and rituals. He looked handsome in his red serge uniform. Our daughter Amelia was immensely fond of all the shiny bits on his outfit...... and the only reason she let him hold her.




I am so proud of my man and I can't wait till I have him back in my arms for good.

It's starting to get frosty out....

These handmade boots from urban farm girl http://www.etsy.com/shop/urbanfarmgirl and are just ADORABLE. Perhaps my daughter needs a pair. Speaking of etsy.com I recently made my first purchase... a lovely necklace for my girlfriend. She loves pedant style necklaces and I thought it would be appropriate to give her one that says "i love to run". She recently completed a 100km race and I am incredibly proud of her.

Dreaming a little

Ever since I found out that we will be moving to the Chilcotin region of BC I Have been daydreaming about what life will look like for us there. Although quite isolated, it is not without its charms. I've been told that the skies are big and blue, that the lakes are lovely for swimming in, and that the canyons and streams are stunning. From what I hear in the weather forecasts, it has already started snowing there so I am excited about the prospect of another white Christmas. I am really looking forward to decorating our new home for Christmas,although I doubt I will be able to make my traditional wreaths, as evergreens do not grow as abundantly in that region. Hmmmm Christmas... I am already so excited! I started playing Christmas music yesterday and I am starting to decide what I am going to bake. I love this photo - it makes me feel giddy :0)





I can hardly wait to unpack all of the belongings that have been in storage for nearly two years now, as I almost forget what I own! My husband and I purchased some incredible things when we traveled around the world last year and I am looking forward to be being able to display them. A few of my favorite items include a handmade blanket composed of green and blue saris purchased in Rajathstan, India and an antique ebony hippo from Africa.

We will be moving into a home that has been specifically set aside for RCMP families, so I have no idea what it looks like. I am rather excited about that fact, although I should be a little afraid as well. In any case, even if it is hideous I am sure that I can make it livable and possibly even inviting. I am already daydreaming about how I will decorate each room. Last night I was feeling particularly creative so I started reupholstering a chair I purchased from Craig's list some time ago. I will post some picture of it when it is finished.

My little girl recently started crawling and I am certain she will enjoy all the boxes that will be strewn about. She is such a delight these days I am looking forward to watching her and her dad interact with each other. More than anything I am excited about having a husband again, instead of a long distance relationship. Nearly six months have passed since he left for depo and I am starting to miss him dreadfully. I'm doing my best to distract myself. These lovely little parcels are a nice little diversion....

"Limbo Land"

I am more than ready for the next chapter of my life to unfold. I feel like I have been living in "limbo land" for an endless amount of time. While my husband is slogging away at depot in Regina and I have been renting a small room in my parent's home. All our worldly belongings are in a storage unit and have been there for nearly two years. We did own a home for a period of time but sold it when the market was red hot and traveled around the world for 8 months. It was the most life changing decision we ever made...... aside from choosing to have a baby. Now that trip is nicely tucked away in photo albums after hours of uploading and editing and our daughter Amelia has stolen the limelight. She has been my constant companion and roommate since he left for his training six months ago. I don't know how I would have coped in my husband's absence if I didn't have a sweet, cuddly baby consuming my every waking moment. As delightful as the past six months have been - visiting Heidi and Annabelle in Norway for five weeks, a week long road trip on Vancouver Island, and lots of time at the Lake - I can't wait to have my husband back in my arms and in our life. I am also ready to have my own home again - someplace to let loose and not worry about being in any one's way. That being said, my husband graduates in a mere 23 days and we still have not clue where we are going to be posted to. I would love to know where we are going so that I can search for a home and learn about our community. Instead, I have been wiling away the days singing to my baby, scrapbooking when the inspiration hits and enduring sleep deprivation. I need to focus on being content. I really have so much to be thankful for - my family, a healthy baby, an incredibly supportive community of friends and a husband that loves me.



This is an old picture but it makes my heart happy so I thought I would share it with you.

According to me

Today I was catching up on blogs that I haven't visited in awhile and I was encouraged by quite a few of them. My dear friend in Norway wrote "11 reasons I am glad to be a stay at home mom" . It reminded me to look at the positive side of motherhood. I have decided I should compile a list of my own.... I'll start with just 5 and add to them as the weeks go by.

1) Being able to wake up slowly, even if that means being clawed in the face by a cute baby that wants to play.

2) Having a fantastic excuse to excuse to stay in and wear my husbands pyjamas.

3) Playing with beads, paper, blogs, and my camera while my baby peacefully sleeps in the next room.

3) Being able to help out a friend or a neighbor in a moment's notice.

4) Being able to go for long walks and bike rides with my baby when the inspiration hits.

5) Being able to take my baby to fun groups like mother goose. We LOVE to sing!

I thought I might add a few interesting tidbits of info about me.

When I was a child... I climbed in otter holes and fell out of many a tall tree
I can't imagine my life without... delicious things to eat
If I could be anywhere, I'd be... walking through a lovely forest filled with ferns
My least favorite chore is... cleaning the bathroom
If I could be on any tv game or reality show, it would be... survivor
If a mystery package arrived on my doorstep, I'd hope it would be... something from etsy.com
My guilty pleasure is... cheesecake ...ahhhhh
I thought I would never... host a Tupperware party :0)

Tag - you are it Heidi!

The delight that is fall

"Autumn -the year's last, loviest smile".



My heart soars when the blustery weather catches an armload of color and hurls it across the expanse. I love the variety of color scattered at my feet when Amelia and I plod down forest paths.



I adore the bright surprise of pumpkins in a muddy Field. I giggle at the sight of plump squirrels scolding me from a branch, their voluminous tails flitting about. I love the smell of pecan pie and apple cider wafting out of a bakery.



Another thing I look forward to every fall is a visit to the Laity Pumpkin Patch. The gourds, pumpkins, goats and corn Fields really make me giddy. It is as though I become a child once again.... darting about petting the cows, marveling at the turkey, cooing at the baby chicks.... longing to scoop them up and take them home with me. One day I will have a little hobby farm. I will have chickens of all varieties and Flemish giants (huge rabbits).

The Tension

Since I have become a mother, I have learned to appreciate every second of "free" time I am blessed with. Sometimes I actually feel sick to my stomache if I don't think I've used my "free" time properly. My heart longs to jump right into the thick of something creative, but dirty laundrey and piles of dishes niggle at the edges of my consciousness. Sometimes I cast aside the nesesdary and make a bigger mess with fabric and glue and felt..... and when I do it feels great, esspecially when I have something to show for it. Our lives revolve around the same routines everyday, and sometimes we need to shake it up- feel alive and surprise ourselves. I hate getting stuck in rutes, how about you? I am inspired by women like Brittney Soucy, a woman who has five children, who still manages to find the time to make beautiful things. You really have to check out her blog and etsy site sometime. I love her presepctive on mothering as well. Sometimes at the end of the day, when my hair is standing on end, my nerves feel frazzled and I smell like baby spit up I need to laugh and be reminded why I am doing what I am doing. http://brittsoucy.blogspot.com/

I think I'd like to make this with some felt I have laying around. Seriously, I have way too many creative projects on the go already.....





These are just way too awesome. I found them on etsy and I think I may have to buy them for my daughter. My husband and I LOVE sushi!

Living Out Childhood Dreams

Believe it or not but I am in Norway living out a dream with my dearest friend Heidi. When we were much younger, around 15 years old, we dreamed that one day we would be able to raise our babies together. Eleven years have passed since that sunny hopefully day and here we are. I don't think that we could have possibly timed things better. I met my husband when I was sixteen, married him when I was twenty one and had my first child at twenty six. Heidi met her husband in her twenties in England and then married him two years ago. Amazingly our babies are only two months apart. Here is a picture of us picking cherries with our babies strapped to our backs.

The birth of baby Amelia

I thought that I would share my birth story with you as it is very precious to me. I had planned to have a home birth from very early on in my pregnancy and I had done a lot of research and reading about what to expect. I knew that pain medication would not be available to me if I opted for a home birth but I had been told that laboring in water could provide a lot of relief. I bought a birthing pool and hoped for the best. I started experiencing contractions fairly early in the morning on March 18th, three days before my due date – so I didn’t take them seriously. I assumed that I would be at least a week and half late. I managed to sleep until 11am and then I started to look on the internet for “signs of early labor”. I think that I was in denial. I didn’t call anyone and when my husband came home from work and told me that he might be laid off for a couple days I said “great, because I think that I am having contractions”. I decided that we should go grocery shopping because if it was false labor than the contractions would most likely stop. They didn’t. I had some serious contractions in the frozen food isle. :0) We got home and Nathaniel started timing them contractions – a healthy 5 minutes apart. I decided to call my doula and she told me that I should also call my midwives. When my doula showed up she immediately started helping me breath through my contractions. I was worried about making noise, but she helped me make these great low moaning sounds that felt great. Between contractions I chatted with my family and walked around the house. It felt really good to walk and I only laid down for a few minutes when my midwife showed up and asked me if I wanted to know how far I was dilated. Although the contractions were pretty intense, they were not as painful as I had anticipated so I was not sure how far along I was. I remember closing my eyes while she checked me – I was hoping that I would be at least 3-5 centimeters, so when she told me that I was 8 centimeters my eyes flew open with surprise. I was so excited to be so far along and coping so well. The midwife said that if I wanted to have my baby in the birthing tub that the boys, my husband and dad and brother, better get the tub inflated and filled. There was a flurry of activity while the midwives set up their equipment and the boys got my tub ready. In the meantime I clung to my doula and we did our little slow dance moaning thing. It was brilliant! As soon as the tub was filled I climbed in and had a big *sigh*. It felt amazing to be surrounded by warm water. The lights were low and I had some really great acoustic guitar music in the background. I dilated to 10 centimeters within the next 45 minutes and clung to my husband, who was behind me. Once I was fully dilated my midwives told me that I could push. I didn’t want to push before my body was ready because I had heard that it can cause your cervix to swell – which is quite painful. The pressure down below was pretty intense at that point so when it was time to push I was quite relieved. I remembered what you had told me about “pushing like you are going to poo”. Very helpful! I got to feel my baby as she moved down the birth canal and I felt her head as it was crowning. Between pushes I had lots of time to rest, talk to my mom and sister who were sitting on the couch nearby and drink water. About 45 min later a slippery little girl was placed on my chest and Nathaniel cut the cord. My dad and brother, who were in the other room, hooted and hollered when they heard Amelia’s first cry. It was a special moment. I got out of the tub to deliver the placenta and Amelia was passed to Nathaniel. He cried when he held her for the first time. It was beautiful. My labium, on the overhand, was not so beautiful, and required at least 8 stitches. My midwife did a fantastic job stitching me up, but unfortunately, the freezing didn’t have much effect so it was incredibly painful. Afterwards the midwives cleaned up the living room, and weighed and measured Amelia. My doula brought me tea and food and stuck around until 3am helping me with breastfeeding. All in all it was a good day.

Only days away now..

It has been a long time since I have written. I have been throughly enjoying resting, crafting, walking, visiting with friends, and spending quality time with my husband. I am due to give birth to a little girl in six days, but I think that it will take longer - perhaps 12 days. I am looking forward to becoming a mother, however I am in no rush. She will come when she is ready and by then, hopefully I will be ready as well. Today I decided to check the etsy.com site to peruse through the latest assortment of handmade items. These are a few of my favorite finds:

I like these slippers made from discarded sweaters.



This ruffled lace is also beautiful. I can think of a million uses for it.

Journey to motherhood

Well, here I am on the cusp of motherhood. I am sitting at my desk at work, counting down my last few minutes of paid employment. Last night I started folding onsies and thinking about the shower that my girlfriend will be holding for me.

Ideas

I love prowling the internet for scrapbooking ideas and layouts. I love how each person brings their own creative flair to a page. Right now I am experimenting with with different techniques.

Last week of work

I don't really have anything particularly interesting to write this evening, but I would like to blog nevertheless. I have one more week left before I go on maternity leave and I am looking forward to some rest before my baby arrives. This weekend I got a lot of sleep and I feel fantastic as a result, but I know that by the end of this work week I am going to feel exhausted again. I am really looking forward to having some special time with my husband before our lives are thrown into a tailspin. My husband has been taking such wonderful care of me these past few weeks while and I am looking forward to doing some special things for him.

Valentines day is just around the corner and My husband and I usually like to do something memorable but this year I feel like doing something more low key and inexpensive. In the past we have gone on a salsa cruise around the Vancouver harbour, have taken a camel safari in India, and gone out for a fancy five course meal. The most important part of Valentines day is the card.

Spring is in the air

Today my husband announced that spring was in the air. Translation: lots of rain and muck and all things new and glorious. I am so thankful that it is now possible to buy fun adult sized gumboots. I recently purchased a conservative pair in shades of grey and black but I have my eyes on a rainbow pair as well.

On the theme of shopping: I have forbidden myself from buying more clothing, as I seem to grow out of whatever I purchase within a matter of weeks. I have started to borrow/steal my husbands clothing which are still nice and roomy. In the meantime I will continue to salivate over delicious pieces like the beautiful piece in the above photo.



This picture reminds me of my friend Heidi for some reason. I tried to send her the link for it, but being technologically delayed that I am, could not figure how to do it. I'm sure that she will stumble across it in my blog at some point. So why does it remind me of her.... I think its because it reminds of Peice of art she once fell in love with while we are vacationing with our husbands in Hawaii.

Pretty things found on Etsy